Ditch Summit w/ Matt Miller

Over winter break, I participated in a completely free, online Professional Development opportunity through Twitter. Matt Miller, of Ditch That Textbook fame, facilitated the PD opportunity, appropriately titled Ditch Summit. It's a 9-day extravaganza where Mr. Miller interviews a different educational leader/thinker/innovator each day, so you tune in for a new hour long session each day. Participants can pick and choose what they wish to learn about and the videos disappear after Dec 31 (sorry, there's always next year!). I "attended" 4 different days and included a reflection of each one below:

1) Tanya Avarith and Holly Clark -- Technology and Pedagogy
    -Co-authors of the educational book, "Google Infused Classroom" (On my reading list)
    -Discussed ways to effectively integrate technology in the classroom
          a) Make thinking visible = students showing their brainstorming through tech -  backchannels, padlets, shared Google Docs, etc
         b) Student voice = tech can help us gauge, in real time, how well students understand a new concept or what questions they may have on that particular subject (think Google Forms, Kahoot, etc). Also, students should have some choice in what and how they learn.
        c) Share student work = as educators, we should be sharing student work beyond the walls of our classroom. I share students' work on our blog. It's amazing to see their faces when someone in another country has viewed their blog post.

2) Eric Curts -- How in the Google did you do that? (Eric is a Google genius)
     -Control Alt Achieve (Eric's amazing blog); YouTube channel
     -Eric Curts' blog is a one-stop shop for anything and everything Google, which includes webinars and ready to use Google lesson plans.
     -http://www.controlaltachieve.com/p/resources.html

3) Sara Thomas -- How to Learn from a World of Educators
    -the importance of connecting with other educators on social media --  share ideas, feedback, discussions, etc.
    -Twitter chats = great way to join discussions (EduMatch - find educators with same interests)
    -Hashtags to follow = #ISTE, #Ditchbook, #Futureready, #CUE, #EDUMATCH
    -Voxer = instant voice communication for teams (http://www.theedsquad.org/voxer)

4) Matt Miller -- Chromebook Crash Course
    -Author of Ditch that Textbook
    -I learned so much from this session. It's difficult to write about all of the keyboard tricks & commands, but you can find many of them on his YouTube Channel = Ditch that Textbook
    -Follow his podcast = Google Teacher Tribe
   -Here are a few good tips for Google Drawings & Slides:

©Matt Miller (http://ditchthattextbook.com/)